1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication device such as a facsimile machine that can perform its communication with a remote communication device without being interrupted by any other accesses incoming from a circuit network.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been proposed a call waiting service. During a call between a subscriber of the call waiting service and a remote party, when a new calling party calls the call-waiting service subscriber, the present call is interrupted by the new call so that the call-waiting service subscriber can have a conversation with the new calling party.
There have been proposed two conventional methods for disabling this call waiting feature during a desired telephone call so that the desired call will not be interrupted by any other calls incoming from the circuit network.
In the first method, when the user places a telephone call, he/she dials a predetermined access code while placing his/her communication device into an off hook condition. This will disable the call waiting feature so that the telephone call will not be interrupted by any other calls from the circuit network. After the telephone call is completed and the user returns the communication device to an on hook condition, the call waiting features are automatically restored so that telephone communications to be conducted thereafter will be interrupted by other calls incoming from the circuit network.
The second method is similar to the first method. In the second method, the user dials the access code during a telephone call rather than when making the telephone call. In the second method, the user places the communication device in an off hook condition for a predetermined short period of time while the user performs his/her telephone communication with the remote device. Then, the user dials the predetermined access code to disable the call waiting feature so that the present telephone commination will not be interrupted by other calls from the communication network. As in the first method, when the present communication is completed and the communication device is again placed in an on hook condition, call waiting features are automatically restored so that telephone communication to be conducted thereafter will be interrupted by any other calls incoming from the circuit network.
When a transmission line, connected to a telephone of the call waiting service subscriber, is also connected to a facsimile machine, the single transmission line is shared by the telephone and the facsimile machine. Accordingly, facsimile communication will also be interrupted by other incoming calls from the circuit network. When the facsimile communication is interrupted by an incoming call, however, noise will possibly generate and will distort image information that is being transmitted or being received.
In order to solve this problem, the facsimile machine can be controlled in the above-described two methods before the facsimile machine starts facsimile communication procedure so that the facsimile communication will not be interrupted by any calls incoming from the circuit network.
Using either of the above-described two methods, however, requires a troublesome operation for manually dialing the access code.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide an improved communication device that can be set into an interrupt prohibition condition, without requiring any troublesome manual operations, so that the communication device can reliably perform communication with remote communication devices without being interrupted by any other calls from the circuit network.
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention provides a communication device, comprising: communication means for executing communication with a remote communication device via a communication network; storing means for storing instruction data for instructing setting of prohibition of interruption from the communication network while communication is being established by the communication means with the remote communication device; and instruction transmission means for retrieving the instruction data from the storing means and for transmitting the instruction data to the communication network.
The communication means may start communicating with the remote communication device after the instruction transmission means retrieves the instruction data from the storing means and transmits the instruction data to the communication network.
The communication means may transmit, through a closed communication circuit connected to the remote communication device, a signal for setting a condition capable of setting the interruption prohibition, before the instruction transmission means retrieves the instruction data from the storing means and transmits the instruction data to the communication network.
The communication means may execute communication with the remote communication device via a predetermined exchange device, wherein the storing means stores instruction data for instructing the exchange device to set prohibition of interruption by other communications while communication is being established by the communication means with the remote communication device via the predetermined exchange device, and wherein the instruction transmission means retrieves the instruction data from the storing means and transmits the instruction data to the predetermined exchange device.
According to another aspect, the present invention provides a communication device, comprising: a communication unit executing communication with a remote communication device via a communication network; a storage unit storing instruction data for instructing setting of prohibition of interruption from the communication network while communication is being established by the communication means with the remote communication device; and an instruction transmission unit retrieving the instruction data from the storing means and transmitting the instruction data to the communication network.
According to still another aspect, the present invention provides a data storage medium storing a data of a program for controlling a communication device that has a storing portion for storing therein instruction data for instructing setting of prohibition of interruption from a communication network while communication is being established with a remote communication device, the program comprising: a program of retrieving the instruction data from the storing portion and for transmitting the instruction data to a communication network; and a program of executing communication with a remote communication device via the communication network.